Suggested Books

PARTNERS

Study Claims to Have Solved Mystery of Giant Easter Island Hats

Archaeologists have long debated how the ancient inhabitants of Easter Island managed to balance a separate piece of stone on top of the heads of the famous moai statues that are dotted across the island. Now a team of researchers claim to have the answer.

Easter Island, or Rapa Nui as it is known in the Polynesian language, is a small remote island a few thousand miles west of South America. One of the most interesting features of this island is its 887 giant monolithic statues named moai. While the initial name of the island was considered to be ‘Te Pito O Te Henua’, which means the Navel of the World, it was renamed in 1722 when the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen arrived there and has been known as ‘Easter Island’ since.

The moai statues of huge male figures on average are 13 feet high (3.9624 m) and weigh 14 tons (12,700 kg). They are made of compressed volcanic ash. Many believe the statues held a sacred role in the Rapa Nui people’s lives and may have been ceremonial conduits for contact with the gods.

A number of the moai statues found on the island also have pukao, the name given to the hats or topknots placed on top of the heads, which may have represented dressed hair or headdresses of red feathers worn by chiefs throughout Polynesia. They are cylindrical in shape with a dent on the underside to fit on the head of the moai and a boss or knot on top. The pukao was balanced as a separate piece on top of the head of a moai. For many years it has not been known how they were raised and placed but theories include them being raised with the statue or placed after the statue was erected.

According to a new study, the pukao were rolled up ramps into place. Live Science reports that researchers used “simple physics to model the force and torque required to place the pukao atop the moai via different techniques, such as rolling the objects up a ramp to the top of the statues, building a giant tower and using a pulley system, or erecting the pukao and moai simultaneously.”

Co-author of the study Sean Hixon, an undergraduate student in archaeology and geology at the University of Oregon, who presented his findings at the 80th Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, said that rolling the headgear “would have been a relatively easy matter” and could have been done by less than ten people.

The first known painting of Easter Island in 1775 by William Hodges, showing moai statues with their distinctive red headgear. ( Wikipedia)

Hixton added that other features support the rolling theory of placement, including indentations at the bases of the hats and their oblong shape. The shape would have had an advantage over a circular cross-section as it would have prevented the pukao from rolling down the ramp by accident. Many of the pukao also have ring-shaped indentations and vertical scratches on the sides, which could have provided traction as the hats were being rolled up a ramp.

Nevertheless, Hixton admitted that the research is far from conclusive and that any of the other theories regarding their placement could also be valid, as research showed that all the proposed methods were theoretically possible with enough people.

Easter island was settled around AD 300 by Polynesians and between the 10th and 16th centuries the island community expanded steadily, settlements being set up along practically the entire coastline. However, following this period, the population took an extremely rapid decline dropping from 15,000 to approximately 2,000. For many years it was believed that this was due to an economic and social crisis in the community caused by environmental deterioration. However, more recent research has drawn this belief into question and has demonstrated that population decline only occurred after the arrival of Europeans.

April

April Holloway is a Co-Owner, Editor and Writer of Ancient Origins. For privacy reasons, she has previously written on Ancient Origins under the pen name April Holloway, but is now choosing to use her real name, Joanna Gillan.

Comments

Compare pictures of ancient ruins with standing columns that support the floor of the next level such as Apollo's temple with those moai and you have to wonder if the natives just carved what was already standing there.

The proposal that the topknots were installed by rolling them up a ramp is nuts! First of all, these 'pakuo' are not perfect cylinders and therefore would roll off a ramp. Secondly, a ramp would have to be hundreds of meters long at a maximum slope of 7-degrees and there is no evidence of such ramps. I am surprised that such a University would support such a poorly thought out theory.

Pages

Related Articles on Ancient-Origins

Images from the 2012 excavation of Easter Island’s iconic statues reveal the renowned heads are not only connected to giant bodies, but the bodies are covered in mysterious designs and symbols, which...

A 2015 study suggests that European “exploration” of the world resulted in the collapse of yet another indigenous people previously thought to have died out pre-contact: the Rapa Nui of Easter Island...

Easter Island is a place of mystery that has captured the public imagination. Famous for ancient carved statues and a location so remote it boggles the mind, the island presents a captivating puzzle...

Viral Articles

Several Native American tribes have passed down legends of a race of white giants who were wiped out. We’ll take a look at a few such legends, including those among the Choctaw and the Comanches of the United States down to the Manta of Peru.

Myths & Legends

Several Native American tribes have passed down legends of a race of white giants who were wiped out. We’ll take a look at a few such legends, including those among the Choctaw and the Comanches of the United States down to the Manta of Peru.

Human Origins

Ashkenazi Jews are a Jewish ethnic group who have their earliest ancestors from the indigenous tribes of Israel…at least on one side of the family tree. A study published in 2013 in Nature Communications has shown their maternal lineage comes from a different, and possibly unexpected, source.

Our Mission

At Ancient Origins, we believe that one of the most important fields of knowledge we can pursue as human beings is our beginnings. And while some people may seem content with the story as it stands, our view is that there exists countless mysteries, scientific anomalies and surprising artifacts that have yet to be discovered and explained.

The goal of Ancient Origins is to highlight recent archaeological discoveries, peer-reviewed academic research and evidence, as well as offering alternative viewpoints and explanations of science, archaeology, mythology, religion and history around the globe.

We’re the only Pop Archaeology site combining scientific research with out-of-the-box perspectives.

By bringing together top experts and authors, this archaeology website explores lost civilizations, examines sacred writings, tours ancient places, investigates ancient discoveries and questions mysterious happenings. Our open community is dedicated to digging into the origins of our species on planet earth, and question wherever the discoveries might take us. We seek to retell the story of our beginnings.